A man lives with his six children, age from 8 to around 18, in the woods, where he trains them as some utopian superhumans. But all goes sideways when the mother of the children and the man's wife kills herself...
Do we like the world we live in? Do we wanna change it to the better, or there's no other way but to bend down and adapt? Well, Captain Fantastic is a story about people who had no illusions about the modern society surrounding them, so instead of letting it crook their lives and the lives of their children they decided to create their own small paradise, the triumphant kingdom of both physical and mental superiority. But it would be too simplistic to paint the story in just black and white, so to make our superkids a little more human the filmmakers gave them a flaw of being absolutely incapacitated socially. The whole movie then progresses by using that striking contrast as its driver until, eventually, it settles things to a seemingly reasonable consensus between the perfect ideas and the imperfect world those ideas have to be implemented in.
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There's a moment in this film when Viggo Mortensen's character asks his daughter to give her analysis of Nabokov's Lolita. She at first struggles to find the right words, saying "it's interesting". "Be more specific", he replies, because he tries to teach his kids to do more than just scratching the surface and being satisfied with simple answers.
Well, finding the right words for this film might be an equally challenging task. And it's definitely a mixed bag of emotions and impressions. I like and admire the film for how beautifully it's made. The chemistry between the kids, more bound to each other now that they have nobody else to turn to, and their father, who's both an upholding pillar of their lives and a subject of their angst and frustration, is a never-ending source of wonder. Now that Viggo Mortensen's gradually ending his career as an action figure, seeing him go for the emotional complexity - and succeed at it - is quite a pleasure.
What I don't find the pleasure in, however, is a typical loophole of giving the otherwise flawless characters a defect both huge and unlikely, using that trick to create something resembling a conflict the movie would be so desperately lacking otherwise. Why do children who can master quantum physics or military-grade physical training have to be so blatantly ignorant when it comes to the regular people's lives? Why would a kid know about the Supreme Court cases but have no idea what Nike or Coca Cola is? Why would a guy be speaking six languages but have no idea how to talk to a girl? It's not like the only books in this world are for nerds, we have social studies and psychological literature as well. Of course, if Ben's kids were reading those books too they would be Hanna-like complete (for those unaware who I refer to, please watch the 2011 film of the same name, it's really awesome in its own right). But that kind of perfection assumes a sense of purpose, something that we regular flawed people are entitled not to have or to struggle searching for, and something that turns a perfect human into something not entirely human but rather like a tool or a weapon. And the thing Ben's kids definitely don't have is a knowledge of what to do with such fantastically special selves.
Maybe I'm over-analyzing and it's just my wishful thinking, but it really seems that behind the story of Captain Fantastic is a story of us all and the question we all seek the answer for: what is happiness and what's the way to achieve it? It's clear that the "superkids" in this film are superior to the most of us in terms of mental and physical development. But what's the point of all that potency? Does it make them happy? Do they feel better than the regular typical us simply because they are healthier, stronger or more educated? Or do they feel lonely and cast away from the society which finds unity in its common flaws and mistakes? Because those fat/lazy/shortsighted and basically ignorant people don't seem to suffer too much from their imperfections. Maybe they don't even realize their existence. Ignorance may be a real bliss sometimes.
The only problem is that once you've gotten yourself above that bliss and saw the ugliness it grows from, no matter how much you try to go back you won't be able to get it back, you've come undone already. So the seemingly blissful finale of the film's story is nothing more than just a question: you have traded in your consistency, but have you gotten what you wanted, have you become happy for real? And come think of it, ignorance might not only be a source of bliss but the very single chance to achieve it...
Do we like the world we live in? Do we wanna change it to the better, or there's no other way but to bend down and adapt? Well, Captain Fantastic is a story about people who had no illusions about the modern society surrounding them, so instead of letting it crook their lives and the lives of their children they decided to create their own small paradise, the triumphant kingdom of both physical and mental superiority. But it would be too simplistic to paint the story in just black and white, so to make our superkids a little more human the filmmakers gave them a flaw of being absolutely incapacitated socially. The whole movie then progresses by using that striking contrast as its driver until, eventually, it settles things to a seemingly reasonable consensus between the perfect ideas and the imperfect world those ideas have to be implemented in.
...
There's a moment in this film when Viggo Mortensen's character asks his daughter to give her analysis of Nabokov's Lolita. She at first struggles to find the right words, saying "it's interesting". "Be more specific", he replies, because he tries to teach his kids to do more than just scratching the surface and being satisfied with simple answers.
Well, finding the right words for this film might be an equally challenging task. And it's definitely a mixed bag of emotions and impressions. I like and admire the film for how beautifully it's made. The chemistry between the kids, more bound to each other now that they have nobody else to turn to, and their father, who's both an upholding pillar of their lives and a subject of their angst and frustration, is a never-ending source of wonder. Now that Viggo Mortensen's gradually ending his career as an action figure, seeing him go for the emotional complexity - and succeed at it - is quite a pleasure.
What I don't find the pleasure in, however, is a typical loophole of giving the otherwise flawless characters a defect both huge and unlikely, using that trick to create something resembling a conflict the movie would be so desperately lacking otherwise. Why do children who can master quantum physics or military-grade physical training have to be so blatantly ignorant when it comes to the regular people's lives? Why would a kid know about the Supreme Court cases but have no idea what Nike or Coca Cola is? Why would a guy be speaking six languages but have no idea how to talk to a girl? It's not like the only books in this world are for nerds, we have social studies and psychological literature as well. Of course, if Ben's kids were reading those books too they would be Hanna-like complete (for those unaware who I refer to, please watch the 2011 film of the same name, it's really awesome in its own right). But that kind of perfection assumes a sense of purpose, something that we regular flawed people are entitled not to have or to struggle searching for, and something that turns a perfect human into something not entirely human but rather like a tool or a weapon. And the thing Ben's kids definitely don't have is a knowledge of what to do with such fantastically special selves.
Maybe I'm over-analyzing and it's just my wishful thinking, but it really seems that behind the story of Captain Fantastic is a story of us all and the question we all seek the answer for: what is happiness and what's the way to achieve it? It's clear that the "superkids" in this film are superior to the most of us in terms of mental and physical development. But what's the point of all that potency? Does it make them happy? Do they feel better than the regular typical us simply because they are healthier, stronger or more educated? Or do they feel lonely and cast away from the society which finds unity in its common flaws and mistakes? Because those fat/lazy/shortsighted and basically ignorant people don't seem to suffer too much from their imperfections. Maybe they don't even realize their existence. Ignorance may be a real bliss sometimes.
The only problem is that once you've gotten yourself above that bliss and saw the ugliness it grows from, no matter how much you try to go back you won't be able to get it back, you've come undone already. So the seemingly blissful finale of the film's story is nothing more than just a question: you have traded in your consistency, but have you gotten what you wanted, have you become happy for real? And come think of it, ignorance might not only be a source of bliss but the very single chance to achieve it...